Seattle Mariners get started on search for new manager

The Seattle Mariners are getting moving on their search for a new manager. GM Jack Zduriencik is reportedly in Phoenix this week talking to some candidates, starting with Athletics bench coach Chip Hale.

Hale, 48, has been the right-hand man for Oakland manager (and former Seattle skipper) Bob Melvin for the past two years, and was scheduled to meet with Zduriencik on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal first reported the Hale interview, citing anonymous sources.

Jack Zduriencik. (Getty Images)

MLB.com’s Greg Johns reported that Hale, who also interviewed in 2008 when the M’s hired Don Wakamatsu, is just one of the candidates Zduriencik is meeting this week in Arizona. There are “some serious candidates and some just for background purposes as the hiring process heats up,” Johns wrote.

A number of names are floating around as potential new managers for the Mariners, including internal ones like Seattle bench coach Robby Thompson and former Tacoma Rainiers manager Daren Brown. Other possible skippers are former Marlins bench coach (and former M’s second baseman) Joey Cora, Dodgers third-base coach Tim Wallach and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo. Less realistic are headliners like former Reds manager Dusty Baker, former Tigers skipper Jim Leyland or, if he is fired, Don Mattingly of the Dodgers.

Impossible is former Mariners manager Lou Piniella, who said two weeks ago that he was contacted by Seattle but doesn’t want to manage again.

The Mariners face competition from three other teams that are looking for managers. Baker already said this week he’d “be honored” to helm the Detroit Tigers, and there are open jobs also with the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs. The Reds recently promoted pitching coach Bryan Price to replace Baker.

But enough about them. What about this Hale guy? Here’s more from MLB.com:

Hale was an infielder with the Twins and Dodgers from 1989-97 before getting into coaching. He spent six seasons as a Minor League manager in the D-backs organization and earned Pioneer League and Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year awards before joining Melvin’s staff as the third-base coach and infield coach in Arizona from 2007-09. He then spent two years as the Mets’ third-base coach in 2010-11 before rejoining Melvin’s staff in Oakland the past two years.

Hale is regarded in baseball circles as one of the up-and-coming managerial prospects in the game as a young, energetic candidate who is detail oriented and good with the media. He’s obviously familiar with the American League West from his time with the A’s and has worked with some very successful teams, including the National League West champion D-backs in 2007 and the AL West champion A’s the past two years.

The Mariners appear to be taking the search slowly until the end of the World Series, which begins Wednesday. It will likely take several weeks or months before the ballclub announces a replacement for Eric Wedge, who declined to return to Seattle in 2014 after his three-year contract expired at the end of this season.